Reports linking the 24-year-old Welshman with a switch to the Bernabeu have gathered pace once again in recent days, with the Spanish club even starting to stock No11 Bale replica shirts on their official online store.

Spurs look set to receive a world-record fee of around £94m for the PFA player of the year’s services – and former Tottenham boss Redknapp believes that there is no way out of the deal for the north Londoners now.

“That’s a certainty to happen,” Redknapp told talkSPORT. “Now they’ve spent all that money there’s no way they’ll pull the plug on that deal.

“And the boy wants to go. We all know that for a fact.”

Redknapp also praised his former side for their transfer business this summer, with Tottenham having signed Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Etienne Capoue so far.

And the 66-year-old is certain that Spurs have moved ahead of their north London rivals Arsenal in terms of their squad depth.

“Spurs have bought some fantastic players in. Go through the squad and they are full of quality,” he continued.

“They’ve got the French international goalkeeper, England’s right-back, [Jan] Vertonghen is as good as anybody, [Michael] Dawson’s quality, [Younes] Kaboul is back.